Recapturing the Incarnational Nature of the Sacraments

And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth. (Jn 1:14)
Since her beginning, the Catholic Church has been an incarnational institution, a B … [Read more...]

In every way, the sacraments are about God’s love, fully revealed in Jesus Christ. In them, Jesus makes Himself present as the one who loves us “to the end” (Jn 13:1). In each Sacrament, He says: “I love you; I have given my life for you (Jn … [Read more...]

Years ago, a priest told me that he considered that the best thing ever written about the sacrament of anointing of the sick was Evelyn Waugh’s 1945 novel Brideshead Revisited. Although not a theological treatise, the book contains an a … [Read more...]

Question: I am very confused about the removal of temporal punishment due to sin in the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. Some say no, but the Pocket Catholic Catechism by John Hardon, S.J., 1989, states: “Also the guilt and temporal p … [Read more...]

Because a retirement community has a more or less captive audience, it has to strike a delicate balance between the duty to witness explicitly and fully to Christ; and the respect for the freedom, autonomy, and self-determination of the … [Read more...]

The Church needs to clarify the administration of the sacrament of the anointing of the sick for a number of reasons.
In 1974, when I was a deacon in Texas, a priest from Fort Worth came to Holy Trinity Seminary in Dallas to speak to … [Read more...]